Ten Years
by Straying Life
Summary: With no one at his side, Danny has to live during a new era through the eyes of an orphanage…and then through the monarchy created through the Revolution…that he partially caused. REDONE
1. CAT's

Hello! Just saw Ultimate Enemy (wow, I saw it when it premiered! It's a miracle!) and the second I saw evil Danny (man, he's so hot!), I was like, what happened in those ten years? But my dad stole the TV before Danny got to Vlad's portal, so I didn't see the last fifteen minutes until now. So now I have to include that. Ah, well. I like this!

Really, TUE was kinda screwed from the start, but as my theory took up about a page, I'll drop it.

AND by the way, the reason I updated this story (and deleted it) was because it sucked in the beginning and I needed to totally remake it. So, in honor of the completion of the TENTH chapter of TEN Years, I bring you chapters 1 and 2 recreated!

And for the record, I took the C.A.T's at age 8. Now…

DISCLAIMER: don't own DP. BUT I do own at least half the plot since I was the first giddy fangirl to come up with the evil Danny plot. I think. DON'T SUE!

SUMMARY: With no one at his side, Danny has to survive through the metamorphosis of Amity Park without Phantom through the eyes of an orphanage…and then through the monarchy created through the Revolution…that he partially caused.

RATED: T for minor language and slight violence.

Pretype Start: September 17, 2005, 4:59 pm

Chapter 1

"C.A.T.'s"

Daniel Fenton stared at his desk glumly, a packet of paper with a seal lying on it. It was so tempting…so hard to resist…what if he didn't do well?

His ebony hair fell into his crystalline blue eyes. His face, although his age was fourteen, still had the shape that of a young ten-year-old boy. His elbow was placed on the desk, his hand supporting his cheek and entire face.

Danny, as he preferred to be called, came from a family of geniuses. His mother, a ghost-hunter, could build any kind of weapon or technology easily, but her bumbling husband, Jack Fenton, who preoccupied himself with the paranormal and almost only the paranormal, clouded most of her intelligence. Truly, he cared just as much as the next father, maybe even more, but his main focus was on ghosts.

Then there was Jazmine Fenton, Danny's older sister. At two years older than her now sophomore brother, Jazz had the brains to be anything she wanted to be and more. She scored highest on the Career Aptitude Tests and had real potential of being a psychiatrist without almost any practice. She also was one of the less dense citizens of Amity Park, as she was almost the only person who had been able to piece the fact that Danny was the object of her parents' ambition. In other words, he was a ghost.

And then there was Danny. Danny Fenton. What was he known for, exactly? Brains? No…conspiracy theories about the paranormal? No…then what? To many, he was Fentonio, Fen-ton, geek, freak, and nerd. And then to teachers, he was lazy, lethargic, constantly tired, and procrastinating as much as he could. He had not followed in the tradition of Fentons. In fact, he had started an entirely new one. He wasn't really smart, although he probably could be, nor was he a ghost hunter. He was more a ghost fighter.

But nothing could help him here. Not in this situation. Irving had ended up in Nasty Burger. If he did, he'd never hear the end of it, and he wanted to make a good living.

But he also knew cheating was a bad thing. How bad? Really bad. Bad as in breaking the law. And if the teachers ever found out he did cheat, he'd probably fail anyway. It was a lose-lose situation for him…or was it?

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Danny slid into his seat in the well air-conditioned classroom, test in hand, heart beating right out of his chest. But slipped in the test were the answers. Quickly and swiftly, he stuffed the answers into the desk, smirking. He was going to pass, and he'd beat Jazz's grade, too!

On Mr. Lancer's mark, everyone ripped open the seals of their tests and nervously began twitching their pencils from empty circle to empty circle. But, as Mr. Lancer noticed, Danny zoomed through his test easily, his eyes staring intently at the paper.

He finished in half the time it normally took for everyone else. Danny closed his booklet, slammed down his pencil, shoved the test results into his desk, and proudly stood up out of his seat with perfect posture.

"Done already, Mr. Fenton?" asked Mr. Lancer dully.

"Yeah," he said in reply, slinking back to his seat. He smirked, as he pocketed the answers.

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Danny stared in disbelief at his paper. F, it said, the red ink burning through his eyes as he was sure his heart stopped beating. He got caught. But how? Mr. Lancer couldn't have possibly noticed!

_Of course, he noticed you dunderhead! _he countered himself.

_How could he?_

_Well, duh! You thought he'd never notice missing answers? Even Jazz couldn't have finished that fast!_

He walked home in misery, trying to avoid Sam and Tucker hectoring him about it as they did for about a half hour, wallowing in self-pity as he slapped down the test on the kitchen table and walked up the stairs to his room in depression. Jazz noticed him and looked over at his test paper. F, it said. She bit her lip. He cheated, didn't he? And this time, she wouldn't help Danny. He was on his own now.

Maddie and Jack walked over to Jazz and peered at the object of her gaze. Maddie's brow creased down low in anger but Jack just stared wide-eyed. He was a Fenton, and Fentons were supposed to get A's!

"The answers are all right," muttered Jazz. But Maddie caught this bit of information and grew slightly red in the face.

"DANNY!" she bellowed. She could hear the creak of his door as it opened and her fourteen-year-old son looked at her with empty eyes. "Why are all the answers right and you got an F?"

"I don't know," he shrugged.

"Did you cheat?" asked Maddie warily. Jazz looked intently at Danny with anger, and out of habit, Maddie's ghost bazooka was now resting on her shoulder in a battle pose, aimed at him.

"I don't know," he shrugged.

"Yes, you did," piped up Jazz, her voice ladled in disappointment. Danny didn't particularly care for it. He merely shrugged at the staircase.

"Did you?" asked Jack.

"Yeah, he did! I have proof!" said Jazz. She fiercely grabbed Danny's backpack from the wall and pulled out the test answers. Maddie looked at them in disbelief for a moment, but then her head turned to Danny, her eyes screaming at him silently.

"You…cheated?" she said through clenched teeth. "You CHEATED?"

"I just…found it laying around on the floor!" yelled Danny in outrage. "I come from a family of geniuses and I try as hard as I can in school, but for one reason or another, I can't get brilliant grades! Jazz is perfect, do you know how tempting it was to try and get even higher? If I didn't, you'd keep saying," Danny boomed, now mocking a female voice, "Oh, Danny, you should've scored higher, like our little JAZZ!" His voice returned to normal. "It's called pressure, Mom, heard of it!" he screamed.

"Yes, I have! And I am quite appalled at this. Why? I've been through everything you have, and nothing preoccupies my time so much that I have to cheat!"

"Oh, right! Like your school is constantly being under attack and you're the only one calm enough to do something about it! I know for a FACT that you didn't even know what the hell a ghost even WAS when you were my age!" Maddie gasped.

"UP TO YOUR ROOM, YOUNG MAN!" she screeched.

"No!" he yelled.

"NOW!"

"FINE!" he screeched, running up to his room and slamming the door with all of his might. The wall slightly cracked from the might, but no one payed any attention to it. Maddie sighed angrily, rubbing her forehead in confusion.

How could Danny do this? He was always so seemingly innocent! Had he been lying for a while now? Had he cheated on other tests? She remembered how gleeful he had seemed when he handed over that A- test over the kitchen table to her, the most sincere smile she had seen in years on his face.

Danny lay down on his bed harshly, staring at the ceiling. He knew he shouldn't say it out loud in case any nosy wishing ghosts were around, so he said it mentally.

_I wish they would all just die! Sam, Tucker, Mom, Dad, Jazz, Mr. Lancer…_

He never knew how much his raging wish would miraculously come true.

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That very day, staring outside his window, still very off at what had happened, he spotted two Nasty Burger workers running home in a hurry. He wrinkled his nose; didn't they still have a shift?

"'Ey!" he yelled, grabbing their attention. "What are you doing? You still have a shift, don't you?" he waited for an answer. The teenage boy replied.

"Yeah, but the tanks are gonna blow! Irving's stayed behind, but he's not gonna make it!" said the boy breathlessly. Danny knew he would be going against the rules of his household, but his relatives had a right to know about this.

"Thanks!" yelled Danny, closing the window. He rushed down the stairs quickly, calling out, "Mom? Dad? Jazz?"

No response. Was it true? Could they have been there? He didn't know, but it wouldn't hurt to check, would it? Danny was almost scared to go and check in fear of what he had heard the other day at school during the assembly.

Danny changed to his alter ego and flew out the house, intangible. He entered the kitchen of Nasty Burger, his fears confirmed. There were Maddie, Jack, Jazz, Sam, Tucker, and Mr. Lancer all attached to the enormous vats of secret sauce. They were tied by an ectoplasmic rope, and Danny knew immediately it was a ghost.

"Jazz, Tucker, Sam, Mr. Lancer…" he muttered, outstretching his hand. He felt hopeless as his eyes strayed to the thermometer. Almost in the red zone now.

He felt totally helpless. He couldn't move, he was almost grounded there. He wanted to help, he wanted to do something, but no matter how hard he tried, surprise, fear, and guilt glued him down.

Midway in the red zone now.

Danny didn't know what to do. His stomach was mauling itself, and no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't move.

"…Mom, Dad!" he yelled, tears streaming freely down his pale face now. The arrow was now shaking at the very end of the red zone. Danny couldn't do anything. The best he could do was, by instinct, go intangible and save himself.

When the explosion was all over, the limp bodies of his family and friends lay on the floor, partially covered in debris. Danny had changed back in the explosion unconsciously, staring at the bodies before him on the site of the explosion. He was the tallest thing and stuck out like a sore thumb. He was the only living thing in the area.

He stared down at his acquaintances, friends, and relatives. How could this have happened? All of them—gone!

Danny fell over on top of them, hugging them as if they still had life in them. His tears ran down the bodies and it looked as though they, too, were crying.

The worst part of it all was knowing that it was all his fault.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2: soon, soon, my dears…

I know what you're thinking. I'm copying Basser. No, I'm not. I came up with this, as said, in the middle of U. E, so you can't sue me! And although our stories are based off the same thing, they are completely different. I checked out the first chapter of Basser's. Ours will definitely go separate ways. I guarantee it.

UPDATE LIST: ah, yes, a new feature…

SOON: M u r d e rer, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Fusion, D e a t h is But The Next Greatest Adventure, Sixteen Start, Franz Ferdinand, Missing in my Mind, Colliding of Two Forces, Silver Monster (NEW!), Following Me To My Grave.

TODAY: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, Ten Years.


	2. Burden

Hey, just to clear a few things up…I AM NOT CONFUSED! And I never was…at least not about UE…not even the time travel thing…I was just stating that my theory of time travel does not fit with the theory presented in UE. But I can work with that one, too…I just think too much and I complicate things…

Also, Mary Foreman is the name of a character in one of my new stories, Crashing Rain. They have the same name, but have no other similarities. I just needed a Christian name off the top of my head.

CHAPTER 1 WAS MAJORLY EDITED! YOU MUST READ IT OVER TO UNDERSTAND!

Dedicated to ArmAndLeg for giving me great critique and helping me realize to what extremes Danny was going to. Thanks!

DISCLAIMER: no way.

RATING: T for slightly mature themes and language.

Chapter 2

"Burden"

Danny stayed in his bed all the next week, dealing with guilt and fear. What would he do? He had no family, no friends! And worst of all, everyone hectored him for it. When he tried to move on, no one dared leave him alone about it. The day after it, he decided to go to school, desperately trying to keep it in. It desperately backfired.

"_Hey, Fenton!" yelled Dash to Danny as he was at his locker, head deeply buried in it, the musty smell of the locker reminding him of everything he didn't want to be reminded of._

"_What?" was the hollow response._

"_I heard Manson, Foley, Lancer, and your parents were in that explosion!" said Dash._

"_Yes, they were," said Danny, finding it hard to maintain his voice on a regular level as his insides writhed with emotional pain._

"_I also heard that you were there. How come you didn't die with them? Isn't that what you'd want? To be with the people you murdered?" challenged Dash. Danny bit his lip, shoving his head in further. His eyes squeezed shut in pain, tears slowly coming out. _

"_Shut up, Dash," he said timidly and quietly._

"_Aw," cooed Dash cruelly, "Does widdle Danny want his parents?" He stuck out his lower lip. "Oh, that's right! You don't HAVE any!"_

_By then a crowd of people had gathered. No one spoke, only feeling sorrow for the boy's loss. But a few actually did side with Dash, mainly the populars and jocks. Danny took no notice._

"_I said, shut up!" he said with more strength, although the pained note in his voice was easily distinguishable. Dash would have continued, but the bell rang, and the crowd dispersed, forgetting all about the sophomore and his troubles, no matter how big. _

_Danny stayed in the silent hallways, not caring if he was caught. He slowly closed his locker and gradually broke out in hysterics. Danny dropped his backpack there on the floor by his locker, running all the way to his no-longer-a-home._

Since then, Danny had not gotten out of bed to do anything but shower and eat. The rest of the time he stayed tucked under his blankets, blinking out his tears, desperately trying to rid his stomach, mind, and body from the pain through them. He wanted to feel as if they were all still here, tucking him in when he was sick, bringing in chicken soup and joking. But he could no longer feel that way, no matter how hard he tried.

The truth was hard-hitting, and Danny was trying his best to make it softer. But no matter how hard he tried, he could not fix the damage that was done. He knew one man who could, but he hated admitting it, even in his state: Vlad.

Danny, on that day, packed up whatever possession he still needed. Among those were one fresh outfit, a photo of all the lost people, and a tiny bit of food. With that, he left the house forever, heading for Wisconsin. He felt too weak to use his powers. They represented everything he didn't want. Everything that he lost.

So, he hitched rides. He knew it was a bad idea, stalkers and all, but it was the only way to get out without hurting himself even more. Plus, he did have strength. He was almost out of Amity Park forever, but a person pulled up to him and looked him over.

"Aw, poor boy, come in." Danny climbed in warily; no one had ever acted that way to him.

The person turned the car around right back to Amity Park. He began stuttering and even screaming.

"Child, stop screaming!" yelled the woman, plugging one ear. Danny kept screaming, not able to stop.

"NO, NOT BACK THERE! THEY'RE GONE! MY FAULT! NO, DON'T! I CAN'T! I WON'T!" Danny continued shrieking and causing mayhem in the car.

"Stop! STOP, stop, stop!" she yelled again. All she could piece together was that the boy was blaming himself for something, and the people who had received the consequences were very close to him.

"NO!" he screamed one last time before settling down, his head down. "Please, no…" he cried. He kept silent for the rest of the ride.

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The next day, Danny was admitted into the Amity Orphanage right across the street from his home. Ever since he was, he was treated as something disgusting and unidentifiable. In his group, the thirteen- to eighteen-year-old boys, the boys teased him every single day. It escalated to mild violence when Mary, the woman who picked him up who also happened to be the orphanage owner, wasn't around.

"Ooh, look, the moron who can't talk!" said one.

"Oh, I think he can talk. But I think all he can say is 'ooh, ooh, ah, ah!'" laughed one boy, imitating a monkey. A whole gang laughed and one rather naïve thirteen-year-old stood at Danny's side.

"Shut up, you don't even know him!" he yelled. The boys looked at him curiously.

"And you do?" That shut him up, but a fire kept raging in this boy, Joey, to show them that Danny was just as much a human being as any one else.

Danny didn't think so.

Unfortunately, he still had to go to school after that one day he skipped. Everyone let him off. Apparently, being a walking tragedy was an all-purpose late pass. Mrs. Farino, Danny's science teacher, took over Mr. Lancer's classes.

"Danny Fenton!" she yelled during attendance. Danny hung his head low at his desk, neither uttering a word nor planning on it. Eventually, Dash came up to him and pushed his head down onto the desk, saying, "Oh, yeah, he's definitely here!" Dash expected even a bit of bounce-back from the boy, especially after his outburst the other day, but his head stood there, as if he had suffocated on a pillow.

The bell rang, echoing dismally in Danny's mind as he stood up and swung his backpack over his limbs of gelatin and started for the door, head downcast even more than usual. Mrs. Farino placed a hand on his shoulder, only to find that _it passed through him_.

Danny's head slowly moved up to her level, his mouth sewn shut. Mrs. Farino looked pitifully at the poor boy. Normally, he'd reject it, seeing as he was able to take care of himself, but now…he just didn't care.

"Danny, I'm worried about you," she said, gripping and rubbing his wrists. _Oh, thank God,_ she prayed. Danny stood silently. "Can you say something? Please?" she asked desperately. Danny quickly ran out, making Mrs. Farino think that if he spoke he would buckle and collapse.

In all his classes, whispers were a constant background noise, every single one containing the words "Fenton" or "Danny." Danny didn't care. He wanted out. Out of everything, the orphanage, this school, this town, and most importantly, this _life_. Of course, this was not mentioning Phantom…he couldn't go a few seconds without shuddering inwardly at that name.

At lunch, he simply pointed to his dishes as the lunch ladies heaped it onto his plate, worrying about the usually optimistic and laughing, although tired, boy. All they could see of him were his arms and his mass of black hair that covered every bit of his face.

"Oh, Freda…" muttered one lunch lady to the other after serving everyone. She sighed. "What are we going to do about poor Danny?" They both looked pitifully at the troubled fifteen-year-old sitting all alone with the rest of the school huddled in groups whispering about him. He mucked about with his mashed potatoes as Dash and Paulina unmercifully dumped a bottle of water on his head, trying to get enough of a rise out of him to make him talk.

During the elective period, several teachers who didn't have a class met up in the teacher's lounge. They grasped at their low-quality coffee in the small room.

"What are we to do about Danny?" asked Mrs. Farino. She took a sip. "I do miss Jazz, and with Mr. Lancer gone…it's just not right. But we have one living piece of the puzzle who has enough anguish in him to last his life and afterlife." The teachers took an almost simultaneous sip to buy time.

"I…don't know," admitted Mrs. Twere. "I know he's in the Amity Orphanage now…but he hasn't spoken a single word since." The teachers sat in the chairs, racking their minds for strategies to help the poor sophomore.

After school, Danny quickly hurried out of the school, slowing down on the sidewalk as he began to walk down the same route to the place he used to live. Now it was indistinguishable with all the other houses.

He arrived at the orphanage and, one hand on the door handle, took a glance at the brick building before walking in. He started on his homework like a normal boy and when his breath ran cold and became the color of ice, he ignored it. No longer would he meddle in the affairs of the paranormal—even if he qualified as part of the paranormal himself.

During dinner that night, which consisted of roast beef and salad, someone knocked on the door, quickly silencing the everlasting war between Joey and the other boys. Mary, clucking her tongue and staring at Danny with his eyes downcast and mucking about with the food, stood up and opened the door.

"Yes, sir?" she asked, slightly grumpy. He muttered a simple, "Excuse me," and walked in. Danny looked up in sheer curiosity and his eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. There in the doorway stood Vlad Masters.

Chapter 2

Chapter 3: sometime

This chapter…very symbolic in the orphanage. Perhaps symbolic is the wrong word, but it's like an inlook into an orphanage. I've never been in one, so this is my view on it, but if you have, please tell me more. And if you know how a child is admitted into an orphanage, that would be helpful as well…I imagine they need medical papers and things from the hospital of birth…

I felt so sad for Danny when I reread this story! And I absolutely loved how the teachers kept on worrying about him. It's amazing. And Mrs. Farino's last line is launching a new subplot. Joy.


	3. Ambulance

_**Chapter 2 was heavily edited! Reread the second half or be confused!**_

Now that my warning is over with…you're probably all going to be wondering what the connection is between what Danny did, Mrs. Farino, and not so much of Vlad, but perhaps you will.

DISCLAIMER: no. Sorry.

RATED: T for slightly mature themes and language.

Chapter 3

"Ambulance"

"Daniel?" asked Vlad. Danny's eyes only grew wider.

"Excuse me, are you here to see Danny?" asked Mary, nodding towards the muted boy. Vlad nodded. "And…aren't you that millionaire and head of Dalv Corp.?" Vlad nodded again, agitated. "What is your connection to him?"

"Why do you need to know these things? Isn't it enough that I'm here to see the young boy?" snapped Vlad, quickly gathering his posture again and walking smoothly over to the boy and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"We need to talk." Vlad's hand began to tense and release on Danny's shoulder, a comforting, massaging sensation pulsing throughout Danny's body. Danny stood up, giving Mary a polite look.

"You are excused, but when you're done, come back to the table." Danny nodded and walked with Vlad, the middle-aged man guiding him into an empty room.

Whispers erupted at the dinner table as Mary pointlessly tried to silence them.

"Why do you think he's here?"

"He can't be adopting him, it's Danny!"

"Maybe he'll adopt one of us!"

The whispers grew louder now, hopeful and bouncy when Joey came in.

"Then why's he talking to Danny?"

"Giving him a talking-to?"

"Maybe his family had connections…"

"Be quiet and eat your dinner! What goes on in that room is of no importance to you!" snapped Mary as she continued eating. The whispers finally subsided, but everyone was thinking the same thing:

_Why Danny Fenton?_

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"Danny…" said Vlad, slightly pained. Danny's head was still downcast, the majority of his face hidden behind his long tufts of black hair, which had grown out slightly in the weeks he'd spent at the charity. "No, Danny, look at me."

Reluctantly, the young boy lifted his head to match Vlad's. He was shocked when he saw the boy's face up close. His face was pale and sullen and his eyes had been dulled to a deep azure. His hair hadn't been brushed in weeks and the clothes he wore as well were hand-me-down, he noticed. He wore a baggy gray shirt that might've belonged to an overweight seventeen-year-old and jeans with doodles all over them, covered in rips. His shoes were torn at the toes and offered no real protection from rocks and only served as a cover to make him socially acceptable.

Vlad sighed. "Look, I understand what happened. I took a blow as well. You know how I felt about your mother." Danny cringed inwardly, but didn't know why…she was _gone_…and wouldn't be back. So why even worry?

Silence was all Vlad got in response. He sighed; this wasn't going to be easy.

"Daniel, can you speak to me?" Danny didn't move. "Danny." Danny's head turned. "Just say something. Anything." The deafening silence was closing in on the room, applying pressure to Vlad's ears to the point where he needed to hear the teen's voice…just to keep the buzzing silence away. Danny only shook his head, stood up, and headed for the door.

"WAIT!" yelled Vlad. Danny stopped, his hand on the doorknob. The millionaire sighed again. He couldn't believe what he was about to do, but this was Maddie's son…and the least he could do was soften the trauma that had been caused. "I'm offering to adopt you and take you to my castle." Danny opened the door and walked back to his spot at the table, a silent but blunt _NO_.

Danny continued to play with his food as Vlad walked out and bid Mary a good night and goodbye politely. It was then that he noticed Danny's skinny and frail frame. The boy hadn't been eating.

Vlad sighed and hoped with his life that he'd be okay.

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Later that night, Danny walked into the bathroom in a merciless bout of insomnia. He opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the sleeping pills. He poured out two and read the label.

SLEEPING PILLS, 10 MG 

_TAKE 2 PILLS AT BEDTIME AS NEEDED_

_TAKE NO MORE THAN 4 PILLS AT ONCE_

That's exactly what he wanted to do. Sleep. But he didn't think that two pills, or four, would let him sleep as long as he wanted to.

He dumped out several pills onto his hand and placed them on his tongue, swallowing them down with water.

Later, Mary walked into the bathroom, tired and agitated that she had to wake up. She turned on the light and began to shuffle when her feet met something solid. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and looked down tiredly. Her heart stopped.

"OH MY LORD! Danny!" she shrieked. She rushed down the stairs, almost falling and dialed 911 immediately, sobbing. Most boys were waking up from the screams and noise she created, heading to see what was going on.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Amity Park Orphanage, we have a kid who's knocked out on the floor in the bathroom! I think he overdosed on something, but I'm not sure!"

"We're sending an ambulance right now."

"Oh thank you, oh thank the Lord…" Mary sobbed, hanging up hopelessly. Joey and a few other brave boys ventured into the bathroom and saw Danny's body lying on the cold white tile, stiff and lifeless as if he was in a coffin. Joey looked at the counter to find the medicine cabinet open and the sleeping pill bottle uncapped. He knew it was a recently refilled one. Nothing was left.

"Oh my God," he muttered.

"What?" asked one of the boys.

"He OD'd on sleeping pills." Whispers coursed through the group of boys again as red lights flashed onto their heads intermittently. They ran to the window, pulling the blinds of the shade apart to get a better look. There an ambulance was, along with two police cars. Joey thought he might faint, and almost wished he did so he didn't have to swallow the huge knot in his throat.

When the medical team came in with a stretcher they ran upstairs, almost ignoring Mary completely, who was collapsed against the wall in hysterics, muttering what could've possessed the boy to do this. She prayed, prayed that his life would be spared, given one more chance.

Joey turned back to the bathroom as they loaded Danny onto the stretcher. One guy stared for clues and found the pill bottle.

"Took the entire bottle of sleeping pills."

"Overdose?" asked another, who was checking Danny's pulse. "Weak, we could lose him if we don't move." They all took the ends of the stretcher and ran out the front door, loading the body on, leaving Joey stunned and Mary in a hopeless daze of horror, her tear-stricken face colored every few seconds by the tell-tale red sirens.

Joey could feel the thickness of the air the whole time and almost choked. Soon enough, all the boys went back to their beds, unknowing of the tension there had been. But Joey laid in his bed all night, quivering and shaking, unable to sleep as thoughts of Danny floated in his mind.

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Mrs. Farino wanted to know why Danny stopped speaking, wanted to know what happened that night. She was concerned for him, worried what the future would hold for him if he continued on this way.

She made another cup of coffee and turned on the news, her fingers massaging the sides of her forehead. She sighed and took a sip of the milky caffeine, watching the local news stories with interest. Perhaps it would do a special on the accident.

"We're here at Amity Park Orphanage—" said the reporter. Mrs. Farino looked up, still taking baby sips of the coffee, sure her heart skipped a beat. "Late in the night, the caretaker of the boys unit, Mary Foreman was going to the bathroom when she noticed a boy unconscious in the bathroom. We're here with her and one of the boys of the orphanage who was closest to the victim. Mrs. Foreman?" Mrs. Farino raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, Lord…" started the young, dark-haired woman, wiping tears from her cheeks, a boy of about thirteen rubbing her hand for both of their sakes. "I was going to the bathroom, tired and all, and was about to walk over when my foot dug into something. I rubbed my eyes and then…" she cried all over again, "and then I found him! He took an entire, full bottle of sleeping pills!" The news reporter pulled the microphone towards her, noticing that all the other boys were standing on the staircase in the background, trying to get a better look.

"What was his name?"

"Danny Fenton." And the woman launched into uncontrolled hysterics. The boy beside her rubbed her hand and let her to the ground to the fetal position.

Mrs. Farino's coffee cup dropped to the floor and shattered. She didn't notice as she gasped. "Danny…" She was sure her heart had stopped now and was so stunned she didn't know how to react. She couldn't swallow with the knot in her throat. She wanted to cry but couldn't. She wanted to do something, but she didn't know _what_.

"OhmyGod," she muttered, picking up the phone and immediately calling all the faculty of the school, still watching the interview with the young boy, whose name was apparently Joseph.

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Vlad tuned in to the Amity Park channel, which he demanded be on his TV. He stared at the flashing screen, bags under his eyes. He was worried he would suffocate soon or be consumed by the darkness of the room because he thought the air in the room turned into thick water. Danny…had overdosed.

"What is your name?"

"Joey, ma'am."

"What is your relation to Danny? Friend, brother, what?"

"Well, I'm not his brother, and I don't know if I'm his friend. No one really knows who he is, his past before the Nasty Burger, and I'm no exception."

"So…why, how are you close?"

"I've always liked Danny as a friend. I don't bother him about anything, and he's never really spoken a word to me, but he hasn't said anything to anyone. I'm the only one in this unit who doesn't make him feel like crap."

"Why do you think he did it?"

"Oh, it's obvious, woman!" snapped the boy, agitated at the sheer stupidity of the reporter. "He lost his friends, family, everything he ever cared about to a hot sauce! He has nothing left of his home, and it doesn't help that we're right across the street from what used to be Fenton Works! It also doesn't help that it's been demolished and made into a house identical to every other one in this stupid city!"

The reporter was shocked. But Vlad wasn't. He understood, he'd seen it. When he looked into the orphanage window as he passed by to walk in, he saw Danny looking out, unblinking, at the identical house that used to be strange, different, special. He'd heard Joey ask Mary the same time in the corner of the room:

"Mary, has he ever said a word? Does he know how to speak English?"

Chapter 3

Chapter 4: sometime.

Done! I hope you like it! If you're wondering why Danny initially rejected Vlad's offer, it's because the last thing he wanted was his archenemy to be his legal guardian. He'd much rather deal with the pain in Amity Park than come with him and have Vlad be his father in Wisconsin.

Oh my God, this went into a different direction. I never expected Mrs. Farino and Casper High to play a big part in this story. I also didn't expect Danny to OD, so that shows my control over this story. But I DO know why I made him OD. You'll see it next chapter, but I'm in the dark with Mrs. Farino. No, wait, plot development! Ooh, I'm eeeevil…


	4. Awake

Hola, mi amigos! Anyways, this is being typed up on the 29th of April, the Saturday before school starts again. Good news: I miss a week and three days of May for field trips! Oh yeah! Anyways, Ten Years is a lot more fun to work with now than before, yay! Why? Because I made Danny OD! That, and I got something in store for Mary and Mrs. Farino…and let's not forget Joey…(oh, I'm evil). And, of course, we can't forget the vat of hot sauce just yet now, can we? Bwaha.

DISCLAIMER: no.

RATED: T for language, violence, and slightly mature themes.

Chapter 4

"Awake"

At first it was all black. But then it was all white. It burned his eyes so he had to squint. He was about to ask where he was but then he realized he was still alive. He didn't say a word, but he was upset. He failed.

At last, he opened his eyes fully and saw three people there. Mary Foreman, Joey, and Vlad. He flopped his head back down on the pillow.

"Danny!" sighed Mary. "Oh, thank the Lord you're all right! Do you know how much you had us worried?" she said, picking Danny up and pressing him to her chest in a deep hug.

Joey came up and peeled him off. "They did a whole news story on you, Danny! I was in it, and almost everyone in the orphanage was, too!" He wasn't excited, only surprised. "They said that if they didn't work fast, they'd lose you." He said this quietly in a tone that was a lot softer than what he used earlier, but the emotion of it was the same.

"Daniel, I can't believe it." Vlad had come up, his hands gently against his chest. He would've said more, but didn't want to. "Remember, my offer still stands."

_My offer still stands. _Damn it, why'd he have to wake up? Why did people always have to meddle in these things? People had reasons for doing these things, and they wanted to. So why not just let them be and for once, just once, get their wish granted?

_My offer still stands._

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After about a month, Danny came back to the orphanage, but not before Mary gave the other boys a good talking-to.

"You are forbidden to make any comment on what he's done, and you are forbidden to do anything mean to him! I suspect there are one of two things that made him do this, or both. And one of them is you, so be careful, or I will have your head!" she had told them. The boys knew better than to excuse her threats as mere words, so they nodded sincerely.

And when Danny did come back, no one made fun of him. No one teased him, no one hurt him. But he liked it better then. This made him feel like something in the zoo, something to gape and gawk at. No one ever made fun of a zoo animal, at least not in front of the animal. But that's what he was: an animal, a stupid freak of nature. He was just posing as a human.

Vlad began to stay at the orphanage, worried that the last link he had to the Fentons would do something again and needed to keep an eye out. Every day Vlad asked about Danny's powers, and every day Danny left him out in the cold when he asked.

Danny didn't eat on his own, so he had to be force-fed. Vlad would try to do it the first time, using the same "open the tunnel for the train" technique mothers did for their babies, which caused suppressed snickers of the others to go around the table, before Vlad began to try and shove the "freaking spoonful of food" into his mouth. Danny refused every time. In the end, Mary had to force feed him with his head down after a huge, long talk about his eating problem from Joey. Every bite was salty because a tear fell in every spoonful.

"Daniel, you know my offer still stands." About a month after Danny came back, Vlad began to say this every day. Every day he was on the verge of slapping the man.

_My offer still stands._

_My offer still stands._

_My offer still stands._

_My freaking offer still stands for you to take so that I can you use you as a replacement for your mom as if you're not a real being!_

One night in bed, Vlad's voice kept ringing out in his head. My offer still stands. He thought it over…with Vlad…he could get out of this hell…get out of Amity and stop staring every day at the house that was no longer home. And this guy was not going to stop badgering him until he took the offer. Or spoke. And he wasn't planning on the latter.

The next day, Danny poked Vlad on the shoulder. The millionaire looked at him, hopeful. Danny didn't sigh, but he hung his head low with a facial expression that radiated through the air. It said, _I wish I wasn't, but I had no choice…_

Danny shook Vlad's hand stubbornly. He knew what this meant: Danny had chosen to be adopted!

Vlad proudly strode over to Mary, with Danny reluctantly tucked under his arm tightly. He scowled darkly, wishing he hadn't agreed.

"Mary, my good woman, Daniel has chosen to come home with me!" The playing, laughing, and talking immediately stopped. All the boys and Mary stared at Danny. Joey looked at him in a strange way that said, "Did you just do what I think you just did?"

"He _what_?" asked one boy incredulously.

"I'm adopting him," said Vlad, annoyed but patient. The boy's eyes widened. Soon enough, Mary fell out of her daze and grinned.

"Why, amazing! Isn't it amazing?" she asked the other boys in a tight tone through her teeth that meant that they had better say yes.

"Of course!"

"Amazing, indeed!"

"Magnificent!"

Joey came face to face to Danny. He wasn't exactly smiling, but he wasn't exactly frowning, either.

"I hope you have a good time. I'll really miss you, Danny. Be sure to come back and visit us hopefuls once in a while." Joey gave him a pat on the back and a small smile before Vlad held him even tighter.

"Don't worry, Joseph, we will. We will visit you all," he said. "With that, we bid you adieu!" Vlad headed for the door, but not before asking Mary for the adoption papers to be sent to his castle in Wisconsin.

"No problem, Vlad, I'll get on it right away!" Mary was particularly bubbly now because everyone was sure that a mute like Danny would never, ever be adopted. No one would want him, and he wouldn't want to go.

Vlad walked him out the door joyfully, gleeful that he was finally able to get the last living piece of the Fentons. He may be the offspring of that oaf Jack Fenton, but he was also the offspring of his sweetheart Maddie Fenton. And that was all that mattered: he was just a missing link to his long gone crush.

Chapter 4

Chapter 5: soon.

Ohmigod, I swear, I was on something at the last paragraph! I think they've added "whiny crap" to Mary-Jane. And I think I was on it, for that last paragraph, my GAWD. Well, I like it, so the after-effects are still here.

This must be the only story I don't have to milk the chapters for words. I could actually go on, but there's a point where I feel it's a perfect point to stop. I was about to go on, but this just seemed perfect to leave it at! That's my problem! My chapters are always too short!


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